Chapter 75:【Fish Pond】 and 【Chicken Coop】 Changes
Ten days later.
On a deserted island near Zengtou Market in the Yunyu Marshlands, there came a soft "pa一一" sound.
Around Ji Yuan, more than ten water mirrors shattered in an instant, turning into countless water droplets that scattered on the ground.
Seeing this, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but rub his brow.
He then raised his hand to retrieve the bronze mirror of upper-grade magical artifact level, gifted by Xu Fugui.
The mirror was called the Misty Mirror.
Just as Elder Xu had said, once activated, it could project a mirrored illusion.
Ji Yuan used it as reference and successfully comprehended the second level of the 《Azure Wave Sword Art》 — Overlay Mirror.
Only the final move of this Overlay Mirror, which involved turning all the mirrors into Water Arrow Techniques, still eluded him slightly.
But he was close.
The hardest part was already behind him; all that remained was more practice and tempering.
He looked up at the sky — it was about time.
Raising his right hand, a patch of reeds nearby transformed into a dark green flying sword and swiftly darted into his sleeve.
He took one step, and a flash of cyan light appeared under his boots.
In the next second, he appeared above the water’s surface.
Before he could fall, the Thunder Falcon Boat manifested beneath him, and he headed straight for the lakeside hut.
It was just a short distance, so Ji Yuan didn’t bother flying. As usual, returning by boat was perfectly fine.
It saved him from being seen and called "senior" again.
As soon as he arrived home, Ji Yuan heard splashing water from the backyard 【Fish Pond】.
Upon entering, he saw a first-stage early-phase Grass Saber Fish flick its tail, causing several nearby spiritual fish to scatter in chaos.
Looking at the ten early-stage spiritual fish in the 【Fish Pond】, Ji Yuan revealed a satisfied smile.
Ten days ago, after leaving Zengtou Market, he first went to the nearby Taian Market.
After disguising himself, he sold 11 jin of Cold Iron Sand at the Hundred Treasure Pavilion, earning 220 spirit stones.
He also sold the White Water Flying Sword there and purchased an upper-grade flying sword — the Cyan Centipede Sword.
Good for stealth and assassination, and incredibly fast.
Before leaving, he asked if there were any other upper-grade artifacts suited for ambushes — like flying needles. To his surprise, they really had them!
So he sold his old Life-Taking Needle and a set of mid-grade flying knives acquired from the Qin family.
The Life-Taking Needle was too low-grade to keep up with Ji Yuan’s late-stage Qi Refining battles.
As for the knives, now that he had high-grade flying needles, they were redundant.
In life-and-death battles, even a single surprise attack was already a great advantage.
Fail once, and the opponent wouldn’t give a second chance.
The high-grade flying needle was called the "Spiritual Water Needle". It could hide and dissolve into water, ready to explode at any moment for a deadly strike — perfectly suited for a water-element cultivator like Ji Yuan. He paid 85 spirit stones for it.
As for the talisman brush, Ji Yuan didn’t forget.
He sold his lower-grade one and bought a mid-grade talisman brush named the Crimson Veined Flowing Sand Brush.
It slightly increased the success rate of talisman creation and finally allowed him to try crafting upper first-grade talismans.
In this way, Ji Yuan's arsenal of magical tools was significantly enhanced.
He now had six upper-grade artifacts: Cyan Centipede Flying Sword, Thunder Falcon Boat, Water-Dividing Dragon Spear, Spiritual Water Needle, Hundred-Fish Shield, and Misty Mirror.
For most seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivators, breaking through that level would cost all their savings.
So the vast majority still used mid-grade artifacts.
To save up for upper-grade ones?
Spirit stones were also needed for cultivation.
Even if they went out fishing or did other tasks — even like the No. 18 shop relying on late-stage cultivation to trade across markets — there were still losses.
Only those who had lingered in the seventh layer for years or had reached the eighth layer could start replacing mid-grade artifacts with upper-grade ones.
Even so, having one or two high-grade artifacts was already commendable.
But Ji Yuan?
Just after breaking through the seventh layer, he already had six upper-grade artifacts!
In addition, he had three mid-grade artifacts.
And the Yin Ghost Banner formation flag.
After upgrading his artifacts in Taian Market, Ji Yuan rested a night at the lakeside hut and then went to Zengtou Market the next day.
This time to buy spiritual fish.
For a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator like Ji Yuan, Semi-Spiritual Fish were no longer worth his attention. If he was buying, it had to be full Spiritual Fish.
But he could only afford some early-stage, herbivorous Spiritual Fish — these were gentler, didn’t eat meat, and weren’t aggressive.
If he bought carnivorous ones?
Raise them?
It’d be more like raising poison worms.
His small backyard 【Fish Pond】 would become a natural poison pit.
One or two mid-stage ones were okay, but if too many gathered, even Ji Yuan’s late-stage cultivation couldn’t suppress them.
So early-stage herbivorous Spiritual Fish were best — each cost about 10 spirit stones.
Once they advanced to mid-stage, the starting price would be over 30.
Ji Yuan bought ten of these in one go, plus another ten Semi-Spiritual Fish.
The 【Fish Pond】 was right here, so he bought as many as he could.
Next was the 【Chicken Coop】.
Previously, Ji Yuan had slaughtered all the Green-Yellow Chickens.
This time, upon finding the chicken cultivator again, he wasn’t satisfied with Semi-Spiritual Chickens anymore.
He wanted true beasts like the Scarlet-Crested Chicken — Spiritual Chickens!
But the chicken cultivator wasn’t very resourceful — or perhaps such beasts were just rare around Yunyu Marshlands.
Most available were aquatic monsters.
So after searching all nearby markets, the chicken cultivator only managed to find three Scarlet-Crested Chickens.
Fortunately, all three were hens.
If they could lay eggs, then all was good.
Spiritual Eggs laid by Spiritual Chickens couldn’t be compared to the half-baked ones from Green-Yellow Chickens.
Each egg contained more spiritual energy than a spirit stone.
But correspondingly, these chicken beasts needed to eat some monster meat daily — adding to Ji Yuan’s expenses.
Still, compared to the benefits, the cost was nothing.
The 【Pigsty】 was also restocked with a Spiritual Pig.
Though his cultivation was up, body refinement couldn’t be neglected.
Ji Yuan strolled around his backyard and caught that male Scarlet-Crested Chicken again, taking a small vial of Crest blood.
Looking at the now listless rooster and the three spirited hens, he sighed, "Brother Chicken, know your limits."
As for Du Wanyi’s mention of a gathering to welcome Ji Yuan into the Water Dragon Sect Mutual Aid Society — he remembered it.
But he didn’t follow up.
He didn’t know whom to contact, so he could only wait for Du Wanyi to reach out again.
Unexpectedly, it wasn’t Du Wanyi who came first — but someone else.
It was already midday the next day when someone knocked on his door — a chubby middle-aged man at the sixth Qi Refining layer.
"Greetings, Senior Ji."
The fat man saluted respectfully.
Ji Yuan smiled and asked, "What brings Manager Wu here?"
This Manager Wu co-owned a shop in Zengtou Market with decent business.
Ji Yuan often sold Blood Essence or Water Essence Dew there.
Sometimes, he bought talisman paper from him too.
Over time, they became familiar.
But the once-friendly "Fellow Ji" had now become "Senior Ji".
This made Manager Wu rather emotional. "It’s like this — I wonder if Senior Ji has recently cultivated any more Blood Essence?"
"Blood Essence?"
Since returning from Clear Wave Pond, Ji Yuan hadn’t sold any.
He still had over half a pound stored.
"Yes, recently something seems to have happened over at Water Dragon Sect — demand for Blood Essence has surged, and prices have gone up. So I came to ask if Senior Ji might have any on hand?"
As he spoke, Manager Wu spread his hands. "Our humble shop is really short these days."
Ji Yuan usually only sold a few gramss at a time.
One grams of Blood Essence was worth 20 spirit stones — even half a jin was only about 100 spirit stones.
That little profit wasn’t worth a personal visit — so the real reason wasn’t Blood Essence, but to build ties.
"Oh? How much is Blood Essence per grams now?"